Upgrading from a Clean Installation of Windows 8.1 PRO

[CybeGTi]

Hi, good evening.

Should I make a clean installation of Windows 10? Will I have better performance?

I upgrade from 8.1 Pro right after clean installing it yesterday, not even drivers were installed when I upgraded. After the process was completed I installed my MB drivers (asus did not update z77 sabertooth drivers yet), and programs and everything seems to be working fine at least for now.
I was wondering if it will be better to clean install W10 now that I have my Key "updated".

Also, I used a script to find my current product key, and it is different from the one I bought. If I have to reinstall in the future, which one should I use?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Actually, Windows 10 will be available as both an upgrade AND an ISO for clean installs, to existing users. You should be able to install it wherever you want. You WILL however initially need to install it as an upgrade, after which you can clean install by downloading the ISO from Microsoft:

IF YOU PLAN TO CLEAN INSTALL WINDOWS 10

YOU CANNOT CLEAN INSTALL INITIALLY OTHERWISE YOU PASS UP YOUR FREE UPGRADE

UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 10 VIA WINDOWS UPDATE OR BEGINNING THE WINDOWS 10 SETUP WITHIN THE WINDOWS 10 DESKTOP. THIS WILL REGISTER YOUR DEVICE AS A WINDOWS 10 DEVICE AND YOU MAY NOW CLEAN INSTALL WINDOWS 10 ON THE DEVICE.



From my extensive testing of the new Microsoft Product Testing introduced into Microsoft Windows 10 Build 10147 I can tell you the following:




•Direct clean installation from Windows 10 Installation Media, skipping product key twice or using the generic key leads to an unactivated product.
•Using the .iso to upgrade from the Windows Desktop will only allow activated versions of Windows to release the license agreement screen. This only allows Activated versions of Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 Insider 10130. After the install Windows 10 10147 is activated.
•Once the initial upgrade to Windows 10147 is complete the device is registered to Microsoft.
•Once a device is registered, you may clean install from the .iso by skipping product keys during Windows setup. Windows will activate automatically.
•The product activation is tied to the device. You can reinstall using a different Microsoft Account or Local Account and the device will activate.
•You may change minor hardware such as a SSD/HDD and clean install. I changed from a SSD to HDD for a quick test and Microsoft Product Activation was applied.
•It seems Windows Insiders with Build 10130 will be passed as eligible to reach Windows 10 RTM. Those who look to join the Windows 10 Insider program after the Windows 10130 .isos have been removed will not be able to install and activate Windows 10 Insider 10147 or later and hence will not be able to reach Windows 10 RTM.

Performance is ALWAYS better with a clean install than it is with an upgrade. Just be sure to upgrade FIRST, then clean install. Be sure to back up any important files first and if you're only media for reinstalling your older OS is a recovery partition, be sure not to delete THAT partition when doing the clean install, but delete all others.


How to clean install Windows 10:

http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-windows-10-clean-install.html


Future windows 10 installs after the initial "upgrade" are unnecessary, just skip over adding product key information when given the option. Windows 10 will be registered with the Microsoft activation servers by way of your bios hardware string and will activate automatically when you reinstall.